As we expand our business presence in the Dallas, Texas area, Largo Concrete is proud to support local organizations that are dedicated to improving the conditions of their communities. Recently, Largo has donated to the Dallas Children’s Advocacy Center, an organization that works to provide both a voice and act as a resource for abused children. Working with the Dallas Police Department, Assistant District Attorney and CPS, DCAC investigates, prosecutes and works to heal cases of child abuse in Dallas county. We at Largo are proud to support DCAC and the children of Dallas.
Largo poured the massive mat foundation for a new high-rise tower in downtown Los Angeles on Saturday night. Located on the northeast corner of Figueroa and Pico, the hospitality development will add 727 rooms when complete in 2022.
National Readymix began service to the site at 1AM, and it took 7 pumps nearly 11 hours to pour 7,096CY.
The building will consist of 37 total levels which includes a concrete roof. Building services are located in the basement with 11,000sf of retail space on street level. Six levels of above grade parking followed by a pool deck with outdoor restaurant space make up the first eight levels. Hospitality levels are shared between the AC and Moxy Hotel brand names with 347 and 380 keys respectively. Largo Concrete is working with Lightstone developers, general contractor Suffolk Construction, Gensler architects and Saiful Bouquet structural engineers to be poured out in late 2021.
Checking in first at the New Century Plaza development in Century Plaza where we recently poured level 33. Designed by Pei Cobb Freed & Partners, Harley Ellis Devereaux Architects and Englekirk Structural Engineers, the towers will stand 46 levels above grade and house 290 luxury residential units when complete. The towers are located behind the historic Century Plaza Hotel which is currently being retrofitted to include 63 condominium units in addition to 349 hospitality suites.
The project began with the installation of over 25,000CY of mat foundations. Since then, the development has progressed through 4 levels of below grade parking, back-of-house, retail and commercial space at pavillion street level, and into the typical tower levels. The tower decks are shaped like reuleaux triangles in an effort to pay homage to the iconic Century Plaza Office Towers on the opposite side of Avenue of the Stars. The edges of the triangular decks are lined with scalloped-shape balconies designed to mimic the façade of the exisiting hotel. Working with general contractor Webcor Builders, the concrete is expected to top out during the Fall of 2020 . Once complete, Largo will have placed over 150,000CY of concrete!
330 miles to the north, in the heart of Silicon Valley, Largo continues to work on two of the city’s tallest buildings. The Miro development features two residential high-rise towers located on East Santa Clara Street, across from San Jose City Hall. The project is laid out on a 1.4 acre site and consist of three levels below grade and 28 levels above. The 630 units sit atop seven levels of parking with a total of 633 stalls.
Transfer girders utilize four rows of post-tensioned cables which are progressively stressed throughout construction. The girders are located on level five above grade and are up to 64”deep by 72” wide! The additional rows of PT cables are spaced 6” apart and lay below a row of tendons which are stressed after placing level five. Upon completion of level ten the bottommost row is stressed, then the second from the bottom row is tensioned at level 15 and so on. The project is designed by Steinberg Architects and DCI Structural Engineers, general contractor Suffolk Construction anticipates concrete topping out early summer.
Largo Concrete worked with Abbott Construction on the UCLA Warner Graduate Art Studio Project in Culver City, CA.
The overall project consisted of a 21,200sf renovation of the Graduate Art Studios existing building and a 26,800sf, L-shaped addition to the facility. Design by architecture firm Johnston Marklee, the building is organized in the fashion of a ‘community’ with small blocks of private studios in a cul-de-sac setting adjacent to communal, plaza like facilities connected by pathways akin to city streets. Specialized lab space for woodworking and ceramics are also included in the facility which is designed to be adaptable to accommodate future new technologies and working methods. The Margo Leavin Art Studio project anticipates a LEED Gold Certification.
The construction of this building utilized several different concrete assemblies to support the building and achieve the natural concrete look. This was especially important to designers and the University to integrate the facility into the former industrial zone know as the Hayden Tract. The exterior walls were designed as concrete tilt-up panels with 2′-0″ “pillows” or half-circles on the exterior face. Special single-use form liners were designed and fabricated out of state to achieve the “pillow” shapes. Cast-in-place stitch columns were used to connect the tilt panels at each grid line. The stitch columns also used the “pillow-shaped” form liner but were exceptionally challenging because they were poured full-height (28′-10″) between the panels and had to line up perfectly with no gaps or visible seams. Largo Concrete’s in-house engineering team designed custom falsework to support lintel panels which would eventually be suspended 15’-0” in the air. These panels also feature the “pillowed” exterior finish and are unsupported from below as they span the openings to the building.
The interior frame of the building consists of cast-in-place walls, columns and ring beams: all exposed with an “as-cast” finish. Shotcrete walls and beams were installed against the existing building walls on two sides to connect the new construction to the existing building. As was the case with the exterior finish, no sacking or other cosmetic enhancements were allowed on the interior as well. The buildings roof is designed as a grid of vaults with curved glulam beams covered by roofing membrane, curved polycarbonate or nothing at all to allow for natural ventilation in certain spaces.
Limited access to the building pad because of the existing structure made it difficult to form, place and hoist the tilt-up panels. The time frame to complete all of the building concrete was 8 months. Despite these challenges the concrete scope of work was completed in eight months with zero safety incidents over 29,213 hours. Some of the potential hazards that were endured included 30’-0” shotcrete walls and beams, 30’-0” shear walls and columns, 30’-0” tilt-up panels and hoisting the panels with a high voltage wire running along one side of the jobsite.
Largo recently topped out on the North Torrey Pines Living and Learning Center at the University of California, San Diego. The project was designed by HKS Architect, Inc. and Magnusson Klemencic Associates is located on the southeast corner of North Torrey Pines Rd. and Muir College Dr. in La Jolla, CA. Largo’s scope only covered a portion of the overall development with buildings Three and Four consisting of 15 and 14 levels respectively, for a total of 600,000gsf. The development features 2,000 new beds for undergraduate students with related residential life space, new facilities for the Sixth College, social sciences, arts and humanities, dining and retail space, and 1,200 parking stalls. General contractor Clark Construction is aiming to have the development open for the Fall 2020 semester with a LEED Platium rating.
Largo Concrete hosted a charity golf tournament earlier this week at Boudler Ridge Golf Club to benefit the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation raising over $80,000! The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation is the world’s leader in the search for a cure for people with cystic fibrosis, a rare, genetic disease that progressively limits the ability to breathe, causing debilitating lung infections, and ultimately, premature death.
Westin Resort Largo recently topped out on the last of three hospitality projects in the Anaheim Entertainment District. The Westin Anaheim Resort is located on the south side of Katella Avenue from Disneyland next to the Convention Center. The development features 634 rooms spread across 9 above grade levels with 31,200sf of retail and restaurant space on grade. When the development opens during the summer of 2020 it will be Anaheim’s second, non-Disney four-diamond resort. Largo worked with general contractorKCS West, architect Harley Eliis Devereaux and structural engineer Englekirk.
[print_gllr id=7541]
The Disney Height Cone
The Westin’s proximity to the Disneyland Resort meant the design had to conform with what local developers refer to as the “Disney Cone”. This height restriction on buildings surrounding the park allows visitors to be totally immersed in the Disney experience with limited views of anything non-Disney . This effort began back in the 1960’s with a strategically placed landscaped berm surrounding the park and has evolved into a city mandate. Currently, the ‘cone’ limits heights of buildings immediately surround the park to 75′ gradually increasing to 240′ a half-mile away from the resort.
JW Marriott Just one mile east of the Westin along South Clementine Street Largo poured the concrete at the 466 room JW Marriott hotel with general contractor W.E. O’Neil. Construction on this 13 level structure began during the spring of 2018 with Largo pouring three large mat foundations totaling 5,796CY over the course of 2 weeks. Designed by Morris Architects and structural engineer Walter P. Moore, this 488,692gsf development is scheduled to open during the spring of 2020. When it is complete this development will be the first non-Disney four diamond resort in Anaheim.
[print_gllr id=6862]
Cambria Suites
One block further east on Katella Avenue, Largo worked with Nexus Construction and davisReed on the Cambria Suites project. Largo topped out on the one level below grade and 13 levels above structure in January of 2019. In addition to the 352 rooms the resort will feature a 30,000sf water park, outdoor movie viewing area and 15,000sf of restaurant and retail space.
Largo topped-out at the 1066 Market street high-rise this week in downtown San Francisco. The building features two levels of below grade parking with 97 total stalls and 4,000sf of retail at grade level. 303 high-end residential units span the following 15 levels above grade. Largo is working with general contractor Swinerton Builders, architect Solomon Cordwell Buenz & Assoc. and structural engineer Nishkian Menninger to have the building open in early 2020.
Over the course of the last two Saturdays, Largo poured a total of 13,100 cubic yards of concrete foundations at the Miro project in San Jose, CA. Each pour started at 2:00AM and took over 16 hours to complete using five truck-mounted boom pumps. Readymix supplier Cemex used 93 trucks to deliver over 1,300 loads to the site across the street from City Hall. When complete the development will feature two 28 story towers above three levels of below grade parking. The Miro towers will add 630 new residential units to one of the most expensive housing markets in the country along with 633 stalls of parking. Largo is working with Steinberg Hart Architects, DCI Engineers and general contractor Suffolk Construction toward an opening date in the summer of 2020.
One of the many nonprofit organizations that Largo Concrete is proud to support is Habitat for Humanity, an organization that works to build homes and create stable communities across the world while bringing together countless volunteers. Largo recognizes the importance of affordable housing and was one of many companies participating in the Habitat for Humanity Home Builders Blitz in LA, a group of contractors and subcontractors coming together to build homes for families in need.
